Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CSCMP European research Seminar (ERS) is taking place as a virtual event again this year. It is the 16th time that ERS runs of “the stack” as an event where in particular US American supply chain academics meet with their European peers – and vice-versa - to discuss important research issues and how to do excellent research.
Since 2017, International Journal of Logistics Management (IJLM) has joined the ERS along with JBL. IJLM is grateful to the chairs of ERS and Associate Editors of JBL, Prof. Carl Marcus Wallenburg and Dr. Andreas Wieland for this opportunity. Thank you to them and the whole ERS team!
As a token of appreciation to the CSCMP ERS, Emerald has compiled a “virtual special issue” of IJLM papers with free download for participants during the seminar. Firstly, I would like to introduce you to the history of IJLM to understand its mission and editorial profile better; please see Gammelgaard, B., Kumar, S., Pattnaik, D. and Joshi, R. (2020), "Thirty years of the International Journal of Logistics Management – a retrospective analysis". Thereafter follows articles on topics that are particularly important for the journal this year, namely those of gender, inclusion and again, relevance using qualitative research.
Importantly, Touboulic and McCarthy’s (2020) work "Collective action in SCM: a call for activist research” seeks to drive relevance of supply chain research even further by proposing the so-called activist approach where researchers take an active position in their research as an alternative to claiming objectivity. These authors also briefly touch upon gender issues.
Gender issues are, though, not often touched upon in logistics and SCM research. But maybe it is time? Not to exclude anyone but to include new perspectives and approaches to research. In continuation of this debate, you may want to have a look at my blog-post https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/news-and-press-releases/happy-international-womens-day-2021-women-supply-chain-management Interestingly, Larson presented a conference paper at ERS in 2019 in Warzaw on gender issues that later found its way to a journal publication. You find it here in this virtual issue among the selected papers, namely Larson, P.D. (2020), “Corruption, gender inequality and logistics performance”.
In their paper, "Interpretive research: A complementary approach to seeking knowledge in supply chain management", Darby, J., Fugate, B. and Murray, J. (2019) discuss qualitative research based on interpretation as a methodological approach to logistics management studies. The article is useful reading if you want to better understand better what qualitative research really is. It is more than substituting words with numbers as data points; it must be based on an outspoken philosophy of science.
Complexity theory is gaining increasing recognition in the logistics and SCM discipline. In his article, "A complexity perspective on logistics management: Rethinking assumptions for the sustainability era", Nilsson (2019), elaborates on the management and research implications of taking a complex systems approach in what he calls the sustainability era, which we now easily and unfortunately can call a climate change era. Complexity approaches to logistics and supply chain management as well as sustainability issues are important to IJLM.
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to Liu and McKinnon’s (2019) article "Practical relevance of theory-driven supply chain management research: Evidence from China". In this article, the authors point to a need for more practical guidance from research in our field. This is very much in line with the editorial policy of IJLM.
Last but not least, I would like to inform (or maybe remind you) of the fact that Emerald’s Covid related content will run free until the end of the year.
I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the virtual ERS 2021 and get some good advice on how to develop your papers for journal publication. IJLM welcomes your submissions!
Prof. Britta Gammelgaard
Copenhagen Business School
Editor-In-Chief, International Journal of Logistics Management
Thirty years of the International Journal of Logistics Management – a retrospective analysis by
Britta Gammelgaard, Satish Kumar, Debidutta Pattnaik and Rohit Joshi
Collective action in SCM: a call for activist research by Anne Touboulic and Lucy McCarthy
Corruption, gender inequality and logistics performance by Paul D. Larson
Interpretive research: A complementary approach to seeking knowledge in supply chain management by Jessica L. Darby, Brian S. Fugate and Jeff B. Murray
A complexity perspective on logistics management: Rethinking assumptions for the sustainability era by Fredrik Ralf Nilsson
Practical relevance of theory-driven supply chain management research: Evidence from China by Xiaohong Liu and Alan C. McKinnon
You can view Editor-in-Chief Britta Gammelgaard's presentation on IJLM at ERS 2021 here.